ROBERTS LONDON
There is in London all that life can afford Samuel Johnson 1709 1784
ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome to London right now I'm starting
out besides London's Trafalgar Square at the
junction where Piccadilly meets the mall Whitehall and Charing Cross and since
1663 where I'm standing or the brass plaque
besides my feet has been considered the very centre of London
but us Brits have this knack of coming up with charming nicknames for pretty much
everything from buildings to bikes that make sense to us but often leave visitors
and
tourists completely bewildered and confused so it will come as no surprise that
this area that I'am in and in particular the part I'am heading into is also
colloquially known as the West End
but more about that and why its relevant in a moment
London is renowned for very many things and something its world famous for is the arts in
particular
the performing arts and theatre and
my family a big fans of the theatre living here in this city it would be silly not
to take advantage
of everything the city has to offer it would be silly to take access to world class
for granted so this evening I'm going to meet my little sister for dinner and
drinks to catch up beforehand we're going to go and watch a show a very
special performance of a very special show
I thought before I get to the theatre I thought I would share with you for anyone who's
interested in coming to the theatre here whether your seasons theatre goer or looking for
tickets for your first show I thought I'd share with you somewhere that might be of
interest for you to get tickets so let's go so why is this area very close to the
center of London called the West End of London and why is it often linked to the
theatre industry historically this was not the center of town the City of
London often called just the city was the center in the very heart of London
for centuries and this area is just next to and west of the city today the city
is renowned as the home of London's financial services sector and today the
West End which is home to many of London's major visitor attractions
shopping streets and entertainment venues is a far more popular destination
with visitors than the city the term the West End
I hear used less and less because the area encompasses is large and
pretty vague and the areas within it like Covent Garden Soho Mayfair
Marylebone or Fitzrovia have stronger independent identities than they have
ever had except that is when it comes to theatre West End seems to add an air of
prestige or endorsement to a show so we still have West End shows and West End
theatre venues fortunately it's a huge area and there are many of them
there is a huge concentration of theatres in the area between the River
Thames or the Strand all the way up to Oxford Street
okay welcome to London's Leicester Square home of the TKTS theatre ticket
booth
TKTS here in leicester square is a great place to buy london theater tickets
especially if you're here you're ready to watch a show and you're flexible TKTS
is run by the Society of London theatres and the original idea was to benefit
theatres by simply filling otherwise empty seats so if a show is popular
the tickets will be full price if the theater is not full the tickets will be
discounted TKTS has been in Leicester Square for more than 30 years
and is famous for its excellent on the day deals and half-price bargains it's
no secret so every time I walk past here people are looking at the listings and
queuing for tickets TKTS is open 7 days a week
you can only buy a theater tickets in person only for performances today
tomorrow and the next day however if you know what you want to see and when I
wouldn't gamble on availability book tickets with the theatre in advance
there is so much to choose from here in London plays musicals operas dance and
so much more ticket prices go up and down depending on availability so the
more flexible you are with dates and times the more seats and better deals
will be available show previews for upcoming shows which were effectively
rehearsals for both cast and venue before official opening night or a great
way to see shows first before all your family and friends also at reduced
prices the society behind TKTS also organise West End live in Trafalgar
Square a whole day of free show previews and the Olivier Awards which celebrates
the best London theatre has to offer and both are fabulous events to watch and also
an excellent source to find shows you want to see okay so from
the TKTS ticket booth here in Leicester Square I'm gonna head up into the
theater and to meet my little sister
so the show we're seeing tonight is the mousetrap at the St.Martins
theatre a play by Agatha Christie the mousetrap first opened back in 1952
making it today the world's longest-running show when it first
opened Winston Churchill was prime minister tea and sugar was still
rationed and Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne less than a year Agatha
Christie is the best-selling fiction author to date her work sell more than
Shakespeare and the only work to out sell her is the Bible Agatha Christie
wrote crime novels in the golden age of the genre she is the queen of the
whodunit okay this is the St.Martins theatre home of the mousetrap the show my sister and I will
be watching this evening and it's just opposite the original and renowned ivy
restaurant
so as you can see from the neon signs on the theater the mousetrap celebrating
its 66th year
so now I just need to find my little sister so with such a long history there
are many stories about the mousetrap one of which is a lady got one of London's
black taxis here she jumped out paid the driver went to run into the theatre the
black cabbie realizing he'd been shortchanged then shouted out to her who
done it potentially ruining the show for her
okay guys I've met my little sister so we're ready to see this evening show so
lets head into the theatre
the plot of the mousetrap is the timeless who done it in a very
quintessential British setting a big old country house the guests are snowed in
and then the drama with a very British sense of wit unfolds onstage okay
we've collected our tickets from the box office I've got a programme this here counts down the total
number of performances to date of this record breaking show
obviously to really enjoy the show nobody should walk into this theater for
the first time knowing who done it so after every performance audiences are
asked by a member of the cast to keep the secret of whodunit locked in their
hearts to avoid spoiling the mystery for future audiences and as a matter of
principle to avoid spoiling the enjoyment of the play for people who
want to go and see it both audiences and critics had kept the secret even in the
age of information and the Internet the show's famous tag line simply progressed
from keep the secret to hash tag keep the secret
there is and probably always will be someone so desperate for clicks and
views who doesn't respect the long tradition who will publish it online so
if you're planning to see the show don't search too hard but it's amazing really
if you consider the tens of thousands of shows to date and multiply that by the
size of the audience millions of people have kept this secret and in doing so
the mystery of the mousetrap alive and well for future audiences
okay we're in the dress circle of the St.Martins theatre so we have got incredible views of
the stage its a beautiful theatre
good evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to the St.Martins theatre and the 27296 performance
of the mousetrap
the show Agatha Christie thought she might get a nice little run of about eight months from
tonight is a very very special performance because it is the 60th anniversary today of the
mousetrap being the longest running show in the world
it beat Chu Chin Chow that was on at his Majesty theatre in 1916
so that's not bad so congratulations for being in the audience on this very special night and I hope you enjoy
this performance of the mousetrap thank you
thank you ladies and gentleman for your warm reception this evening
now that you've seen the mousetrap your our partners in crime
so in order to preserve the tradition of the mousetrap
we ask that you keep the secret of who done it locked in your hearts
okay
the mousetrap was brilliant Bravo to tonight's cast
fabulous performance by all of them it's incredible to think that in the 1950s
although the whodunit story's timeless the characters are very much of the
period when the first when the first show was in town the 1950's but today its become a period
drama the tagline of the show has always been
keep the secret it's now in even in the modern day of the Internet become one of
Britain's best kept secret it's now hash tag keep the secret
okay so we're gonna go for dinner and drinks so I'll see you guys a little later in the
month
The End